AWS FinOps Dashboard: A Simple Terminal Tool for AWS Cost Management

Introduction:

In today’s blog, we are installing the AWS FinOps Dashboard — a terminal-based AWS cost and resource dashboard built with Python and the Rich library. It provides an overview of AWS spend by profile, service-level breakdowns, budget tracking, EC2 instance summaries, and also supports exporting data to CSV or JSON formats.

This is an open-source tool, and a big shout-out to Ravi Kiran Vallamkonda for building it. It’s a very efficient and valuable solution for any organization or FinOps team.

You can find more details in the GitHub repository below:
🔗 https://github.com/ravikiranvm/aws-finops-dashboard.git

💡 What to expect:

In this post, we’ll walk through how to install this tool on a local machine and explore its features. While it’s primarily designed for large-scale use cases, it’s still beneficial at an individual or small team level.

I’ll be installing the tool on my Windows machine using the command line, but you can also follow the official guide available in the GitHub repo.

1. As the first requirement, you need to have Python installed on your machine.
   If it’s already installed — great! If not, you can download and install it from the official Python website:
   🔗 https://www.python.org/downloads/

2. After installing Python, the next step is to set up your AWS CLI profile — this is essential because the AWS FinOps Dashboard needs access to your AWS account to fetch cost and resource data

aws --version

If it’s not installed, you can download and install it from the official AWS CLI page:
🔗 https://docs.aws.amazon.com/cli/latest/userguide/install-cliv2.html

3. Once installed, run the following command to set up your AWS credentials:

aws configure

You’ll be prompted to enter:

• AWS Access Key ID
• AWS Secret Access Key
• Default region (e.g., us-east-1)
• Default output format (e.g., json)

This step is important — the AWS FinOps Dashboard uses this profile to access and visualize your AWS cost data.

4. After configuring your AWS CLI profile, you can run the following command to verify that everything is set up correctly:

aws sts get-caller-identity

aws configure list

5. Once the AWS CLI is configured and working, let’s move on to installing the AWS FinOps Dashboard. The recommended way to install it is using pipx, which allows you to run Python applications in isolated environments.

If pipx is already installed:

pipx install aws-finops-dashboard

If pipx is not installed:

python -m pip install --user pipx
python -m pipx ensurepath

6. You should now see that the AWS FinOps Dashboard has been installed successfully.

7. If you’d prefer, you can also install the dashboard using regular pip:

pip install aws-finops-dashboard

There are a few other ways to install or use the tool as well — including cloning the repo directly. For more options, refer to the official GitHub repository I mentioned earlier

8. Now that everything is set up, you can launch the dashboard by simply running

aws-finops

This command will open the terminal-based dashboard, giving you a visual summary of:

• AWS account details
• Cost breakdown by service
• EC2 instance summaries
• Budget usage
• And more!

It’s a great way to get a quick overview of your AWS spend and usage right from your terminal.

9. In the dashboard, you’ll see details about your AWS account. For example, in the image above, you’ll notice only one account listed — this is my personal account. You might be surprised to see the bills showing as $0 for the last billing period. The reason for this is that I have AWS credits, so I don’t have to pay for usage. However, in your case, you should be able to see the actual bills and usage data.

In the EC2 summary, you’ll notice there is one EC2 instance listed, and it’s in stopped mode. This is just an example, and you can explore much more detailed information about your EC2 instances and other resources.

Feel free to try it out and check the details for your own AWS account!

10. Examples

# Use default profile, show output in terminal only
aws-finops

# Use specific profiles 'dev' and 'prod'
aws-finops --profiles dev prod

# Use all available profiles
aws-finops --all

# Combine profiles from the same AWS account
aws-finops --all --combine

# Specify custom regions to check for EC2 instances
aws-finops --regions us-east-1 eu-west-1 ap-southeast-2

# View cost data for the last 30 days instead of current month
aws-finops --time-range 30

# View cost data only for a specific tag (e.g., Team=DevOps)
aws-finops --tag Team=DevOps

# View cost data for multiple tags (e.g., Team=DevOps and Env=Prod)
aws-finops --tag Team=Devops Env=Prod

# Export data to CSV only
aws-finops --all --report-name aws_dashboard_data --report-type csv

# Export data to JSON only
aws-finops --all --report-name aws_dashboard_data --report-type json

# Export data to both CSV and JSON formats simultaneously
aws-finops --all --report-name aws_dashboard_data --report-type csv json

# Export combined data for 'dev' and 'prod' profiles to a specific directory
aws-finops --profiles dev prod --combine --report-name report --report-type csv --dir output_reports

You’ll see a live-updating table of your AWS account cost and usage details in the terminal. If export options are specified, a report file will also be generated upon completion.

11. You can also export the data from the dashboard into formats like CSV or JSON for further analysis. This feature is useful if you want to analyze your AWS costs and resource usage in external tools or generate reports.

For more details on how to use the tool, including export options and additional features, be sure to check out the GitHub repository:
🔗 https://github.com/ravikiranvm/aws-finops-dashboard

Conclusion:

In this blog, we’ve successfully installed and set up the AWS FinOps Dashboard, a terminal-based tool for monitoring your AWS costs and resources. Whether you’re a personal user or part of a larger organization, this dashboard provides a quick and efficient way to track your AWS spend, manage EC2 instances, and export data for further analysis.

A special thanks to Ravi Kiran Vallamkonda for creating this incredible open-source tool, which proves to be an excellent resource for any organization or FinOps team.

For more details and updates, you can always refer to the official GitHub repository:
🔗 https://github.com/ravikiranvm/aws-finops-dashboard